


Concrescence

by Zinnith



Series: Entangled Particles [21]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Entangled Particles, Established Relationship, Gardening, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-20
Updated: 2010-05-20
Packaged: 2017-10-09 14:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zinnith/pseuds/Zinnith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney and gardening. John might have to build that pergola after all...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Concrescence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluespirit_star](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bluespirit_star), [sgamadison](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgamadison/gifts).



Three days before Rodney's forty-seventh birthday, he scares John half to death by collapsing on the living room floor, red in the face and gasping for breath. John has vague memories of the frantic 911-call and the ambulance ride, and only recalls brief flashes of the long wait at the hospital, sitting on a chair sandwiched between Laura and Carson, half-listening to their well-meaning assurances that everything is going to be all right.

After what feels like an eternity, he finally gets to see Rodney, walks through the corridor as if in a dream, breathing in air that feels sticky like syrup. Rodney is awake, his eyes wide and very scared, and John grabs his hand and refuses to let go and he keeps trying to force words out of his throat, keeps trying to tell Rodney that _he is not allowed to die_, but he can't make a sound.

Rodney is released from the hospital with a prescription for blood pressure medication and strict orders from his doctor to 'turn off the computer, get some exercise and stop working yourself to death'.

John wholeheartedly agrees and starts a determined campaign to get Rodney to cut down on work and start taking better care of himself. It's easier said than done. Rodney thrives on stress, always has, and he's not happy unless he has at least three different projects to work on at the same time. John keeps trying to find ways to get Rodney out of his study and out of the house, but nothing he says seems to help.

"I work out!" Rodney protests after John has spent the better part of an afternoon suggesting different forms of exercise. "I go walking with you and your monster of a dog all the time!"

"You follow us around the block and then you get bored and go back home!" John shots back.

"Because it's _boring_!" Rodney shouts. "There's no point in it and I get restless and I just keep thinking of all the _interesting_ things I could be doing instead!"

John has to go for a walk on his own then because it's either that or spend the rest of the day fighting with Rodney and he hates fighting with Rodney. He can't quite stop himself from slamming the door on his way out though, and when he comes back, Rodney is sitting on the front porch, fingers knitted together in his lap.

John stops by the hedge, takes a moment to just look, to just _watch_ him, the dejected slump of his shoulders, the way his hair is thinning and graying more and more for every day, and he suddenly realises that somewhere, somehow, they both got older. John never really expected to grow old, not with the kind of life he's had, and he certainly never expected to have someone to grow old together with.

Now he can't even bring himself to imagine what it would be like to have to live without Rodney, knows that he has to do everything in his power to keep him for as long as humanly possible. He walks up the driveway and the garden path and sits down on the porch by Rodney's side.

"I'm sorry," Rodney says quietly. "I didn't mean to yell."

"You scared me," John says, the first thing he's been able to articulate since that terrifying day.

Rodney looks down. "I scared myself," he mumbles. "I mean, I know all the risks of stress but.. well, it's never felt real before."

"I can't lose you, McKay," John says. Just the thought of it makes him dizzy and breathless. "I _can't_."

"I know," Rodney answers, squeezing his fingers. "I'm trying, I am. I just... I don't know what to do."

"We'll think of something," John says, squeezing back. They're going to have to, because the alternative is just not an acceptable option.

* * *

A few weeks later, Hawk and Meg and Anna come down to visit over the weekend. Anna is playing on the driveway with the skateboard John got her for Christmas (Rodney got her a helmet, knee- and elbow pads and wristbraces), while the rest of them sit on the patio and drink their morning coffee. Rodney drinks his slowly, demonstratively savouring every mouthful because John refuses to let him have more than one cup.

"Have you ever thought about doing something about the garden?" Meg asks.

John looks out over the grass. Truth to be told, they haven't thought much about it. John likes mowing the lawn because it feels like the sort of nice normal thing you're supposed to do on a Saturday morning. Other than that he's been too busy renovating the house to have time to think about plants, and he doesn't know the first thing about gardening. Rodney mostly sees the garden as a place to put Lady when she's making a nuisance of herself inside.

"Not really," he says, glancing over at Rodney who just got a very calculating look on his face. John knows that kind of look. It usually means the beginning of yet another project.

"Gardening isn't that difficult, is it?" Rodney asks slowly, narrowing his eyes.

"It doesn't have to be," Meg answers, seemingly unaware of what she just set in motion.

"You can barely keep your cactus alive, McKay," John reminds him.

Rodney's clearly not listening. "Well, plants are stress-relieving, aren't they? So I'll get some and I can go out and pour some water on them once in a while and get some fresh air in the process. That doesn't seem like too much work."

Hawk and Meg share a long significant look and Meg laughs, but she refuses to tell them what's so funny.

There's no stopping Rodney when he's got something in his head so after lunch they drive out to the local nursery to get him some plants. Anna has a lot of fun running along the rows of flowerpots and won't calm down until Meg promises her a plant of her own to take care of. John and Hawk soon find themselves carrying several big sacks of dirt out to the car, while Rodney and Megan pick out seeds and flowers and gardening tools.

John takes it all in stride. Rodney will probably give it a weekend or two and then get bored and forget all about it, but at least it's something. He and Hawk lean against the car in the parking lot, soaking up sunshine while they wait for Rodney and Meg and Anna to get done. "Remember what I said about the pergola?" Hawk mutters when they finally spot their significant others, loaded with greenery.

"I'm not building him a pergola," John says. He'd never hear the end of it.

* * *

Rodney and Meg spend the rest of the weekend digging in the dirt. John and Hawk leave them to it and drive out to the youth center with Anna to let her try out the skateboard ramp. When they come back, there's a flowerbed along the wall of the house, a small vegetable patch in the back of the garden and a rose bush beside the front porch. Rodney is sweaty and covered in muck and looks more and more intrigued as Meg talks about soil and hardiness zones and fertilizer. John decides that this is the kind of situation where he ought to be a supportive boyfriend so he's very careful about not saying anything that Rodney could interpret as criticism.

When the Hawkins family go back home, Meg leaves a list of gardening book titles for Rodney, and he spends an evening on Amazon, ordering all of them.

Rodney McKay never does anything half-way and John really shouldn't be surprised to see what should have been a simple hobby turn into a full-blown obsession. Physics and Math journals get company from magazines with titles like 'Organic Gardening'. John can't count the number of times he's caught Rodney trying to explain to Lady that his flowerbeds are _not_ made for digging in.

When Rodney isn't working, he's in his garden, puttering around in his old sunhat with sunburn flaking off his nose. John wouldn't mind seeing a little more of him inside, but the doctor makes pleased noises at his next check-up so John goes out and helps Rodney trim the hedges instead of complaining.

"I still don't get what's so fascinating about it," he says when he finds Rodney ankle-deep in the overgrown little pond in the corner of the garden with a spade and a sketch of a fountain.

Rodney looks up from what he's doing, both eyebrows raised. "It's about, well, growth I guess," he tries to explain. "It can be spontaneous, but if it's going to turn out the way you want it, you have to put some work into it." He waves a hand around the garden. "I mean, you could just leave it to take care of itself, but if you want results, you have to cultivate it." Then his eyes light up and he climbs out of the pond, hands John the spade and heads for the house, greenish pond-water dripping off his bare legs. "Hey, that's good, I have to go write this down!"

McKay keeps trailing dirt into the house and there are seed catalogues all over the kitchen table and he spends hours talking to Mr Jurgensen next door about roses. Every now and then, John has to drop everything and run outside to save Rodney from a threatening bee or a wasp (he usually gets a kiss in reward, so it's all good).

It doesn't take long until Rodney starts talking about ivy and clematis and climbing roses and the desperate need of something for them to cling to. John figures that it was only a matter of time anyway, so he calls Hawk.

"So, how the hell do you build a pergola?" he asks, and hears Hawk laugh at him from half a continent away.

\- fin -


End file.
